Saturday, May 5, 2012

So we stayed till the tip-off. At the very first beginning of the match, the whole hall already thought that we would win. Some left after the first few minute. It was an epic 5 out of 6 3-point straight from Obie. The opponent, INTERGomb got only 3 easy basket giving them 6 points. Then the whole situation changed...

The hall suddenly emptied and then a whole new crowd came in, psychologically attacking us. literally the whole hall was echoing the sound of boo-ing Alam Shah. What wrong have we done to receive such treatment. That was not just it. Hud who had made his miracle shots many times before to save us had a heatstroke and cant even play. our captain Acap (Ashraf Hatta) was also ill and finally, gave up as he cant afford to push himself to lay any further. BigHead still has red eyes. Torch was claiming ill as well, running nose was his proof and definitely, that means he cant pant well enough. Oxygen is his worst enemy at that point. Faris (Faris Tawi) was psychologically affected. Imar was put to the bench and had to stayed there. And even our coach was mentally affected. It was obvious that pressure was pushing us against the wall as the points closes up.

At the third quarter, the game changed table. We were at the loss. After such analyses, we concluded that they were suppose to be not as well shaped as us, but this time, their performance was overwhelming. And our mental strength was put to the test. The situation couldn't get any worst when Obie was fouled out by a technical foul. It was a miscommunication. 6 person was in court, Obie was subbed without him noticing.

The game when on full with pressure. till the last minute the remaining players fought the best they could. scores were in margin of 1. The final buzz and the ball was in our possession. Faris was dribbling it half the court, Jhar was at the 3-pointer line calling for a pass for a final try. but the ball never arrived. he stood there calling for a pass even after the game ended. frustration crept in every single one of us. Most of us felt they had some wrong in this happening. N to some of us, it was the work of a divine power for our deed and for the future of the game. The harsh fact was that, we didn't managed to go to the next round due to a margin lost as we did not trashed our first opponent of the tournament.

Back to our dorm with sad faces. We were crying of our efforts, sacrifices and determination. TITANS crushed once again. Obie cursed the game and said he would never set foot on a court as the memories would surely make him sad and want to cry. Some was eager to tell the story how it was our struggle without the help of the school. And some determined to help out the junior teams so things like this would not happen ever again.

We are the TITANS...we do not re-spawn like PHEONIX nor do we fly like PEGASUS cz we crush them to the ground n shall not be defeated...

those were good words that fires up my heart n spirit once upon a time. With the spirit of brotherhood and the memories of hardship we went through all obstacles we could to achieve our gold, reviving ALAM SHAH BASKETBALL TEAM. After series of losses, we finally started winning after our new coach take place, coach Shaq. The previous coach was more to athletic building, in order for players to be well shaped and fit for the game. Coach Daniel has yet to teach us basketball except for layups n free throws. So as soon as Shaq took over, we could say we were fit to play and he taught us the game, offensive, defensive n your role as u set ur feet on the court. And the thing i learned most from him was
1.life always throw shit at u, but who cares, if u hate it, ignore it or clean it. its not gonna disappear itself, u gotta take the action
2.basketball is about friendship, brotherhood. thus trust among each member. shooter to trust ur rebounder, cutter to trust ur screens.trust ur PG for offence, C for defence..so on n so on..

but it was till that final weekend, Thursday, the kricket team depart from school brining the whole 10+ players with the school bus, Obie (Arif Imran) was suppose to follow but he sacrificed that glory for this battle. BigHead (Hazwan Rosdi) was at blok C and had the same disease as the reason y the school closed down, eye sore... thus, the school was emptied leaving us behind. We were told to have a good rest that afternoon, nothing much happened then.

Friday, we woke up n went to surau for prayers. it was fortunate that we occupied the dorm closest to the surau, if not i think we would have skipped the surau and so-dom. n went for some good breakfast at dewan makan. I cant seem to recall, was it mihun goreng or nasi lemak. then we stepped out finding some of us playing football. I was with Torch (Aizat Ishak) then. I joined and that was my biggest mistake, when i was about to kick the ball hard, my kain pelekat what was tied up to my knee fell down and I tripped on my own kain. Fell sideways making myself unable to walk well. then we went back to our dorm and waited. Waited for any sign of bus or the teacher to confirm. Up till 11a.m, we got nothing. So we immediately took the initiative to have our own ride. 2 big cars (I rode in the Estima) then there were the coach's and the teacher's car. but the teacher went a bit later than us. To that panic moment, we left our sack of balls, our water pack and we did not confirm with the school of what else to bring.

In the Estima was kinda cool. It was Coach Carter all the way till Kuses. motivating us, and giving some ideas of plays. To be honest, we have watched it tons of time but we chose that movie cz we needed that motivation after all that had happened, the frustration and worrying. We soon arrived just in time for Friday Prayers and went straight to registration and down to court as it was our first game.

It was not intense. We were lucky as it was not a hard fight. But as we all know, first game tends to be a bit wrong and we sorted it out, giving us room to improve for that game and the coming games. That was when i noticed i can;t run well, i can jump, i can walk, but running fast is not possible due to my fall that morning. owh how i curse myself for playing futsal after years stopping playing football. We went back with a first win but unsatisfied as we could have done a few things to make it better. and trust me, we really have should scold ourselves for not playing much better.

Later that night, it was a dinner event. some sort of an opening ceremony alongside. Now this is another of our frustration and how we felt ashamed. The dinner was a formal dinner n it is compulsory to where the baju batik as stated in the letter sent to school. However, we were not told!!! It was lucky enough for us to have our own TITANS shirt. so we wore that. but we sat at the very end with the other volunteers as only they were not wearing the baju batik. That was not just the end of our shame. In the opening ceremony, they mentioned that only one school has yet to register, but all of us counted that all contingent has arrived. Later we knew that they counted flags and it was us, the only school that did not brought our flag to be raised at their assembly groud. Again that was in the letter and we were not told of it. so we can only keep silence when rumors go around saying that we were arrogant enough to not raise our flag and not wear the baju batik.

The next day, we were pumped up with our victor and the post meeting we had. We entered with our stripes and played hard. ASIS was our opponent. it was a tough game, both played the gentlemen way; one basket each and a block in defence is a bonus. they almost had us at the third quarter. Maba (Afiq Abdullah) was almost tired, so he was subbed for a while to save him for the last quarter. Towards the last quarter, ASIS was leading a bit. and towards the final few minutes, we caught up. It was not miracle, it was hustle. and finally with a flick of his hand, Hud (Hud) made the few basket that tied us, enough for the extra time. Now the advantage goes to us. We have been training under the sun during mid day all this while and thus, the weather on that day did not fatigued us. the opponent was otherwise. They were still playing great, but unable to catch up with our agility and fitness. Their captain said that himself that they were not prepared for an extra quarter to happen. and thus another win for us. a great win indeed, not in terms of scores, but play-wise.

ASIS match ended around 11, we were so exhausted. took a rest inside their hall. It was air-conditioned and that made us happy. some of us slept and some of us ate. but for sure we had to make full use of the time we have to re-energise ourselves, the next game was at 2.30. Zohor was 1 something so we decided that we finish our game first as we needed time to warm-up and such before the game starts. so we stayed...